Book Discussion: What do you like about your favorite genre?

Happy Sunday, Readers. I hope everyone is playing nice and keeping their distance from everyone else. As an anti-social introvert, I've changed basically nothing about my routine. Except now I'm working from home. Anyways, enough about our real-life Dystopian Novel. I haven't done an actual discussion post in a while and thought it would be a good time for one, I keep saying I'm going to do more, but I suck at the follow-through.

Today's topic comes from the Pages Bound blog, which you can find here.

What do you like about your favorite genre?

My favorite genre is most definitely the broad genre of fantasy. If you want to break it down, I really like anything having to do with magic. Witches, Wizards, Magicians? Yes, please. Sign me up. I'm here for it. I love reading about the nuances of the author's version of magic. As an aspiring author, I feel like magic gives a writer a lot of room for creativity and to really bring a unique set of details to their world. One of my absolute favorite aspects in a book about magic has been the Paper Magician series by Charlie N. Holmberg, which is weird because it took me a lot to actually love this series (you can find my review here.) In this particular story, the magicians bond with materials and use that bond to conduct their magic. The Paper Magician is essentially magical origami, and it's whimsical and lovely.

My favorite thing about the fantasy genre, specifically magical sub-genres, is that anything is possible. There are no rules for magic because it's not something that exists in the real world. With magic, the only limitation is one's creativity. While I love other genres, I feel like there's some limitation due to history or realism. With magic, there may be a lot of similar conventions, but ultimately it can be whatever you want it to be.

I'm really drawn to stories about witches, and I think that they're the perfect example of magic being able to be whatever you want it to be. Every witch story you read has differences in the witch's magic. Sure, there are some common ideas, but it's all still a little different. Some witch's use earth magic, some use spells, some make potions. Some channel the magic through wands while others draw it through ley lines. It's all different and very individualized.

Mostly, I think that the possibility of magic is inspiring, especially in crazy times like this. Fairy magic is also a favorite of mine. Take Peter Pan (find the review here), for example, which is fitting that I'm watching Hook one of my all-time favorite movies. Fairies are born from a baby's first giggle, and when Tinkerbell falls ill, the cure is believing in fairies. In magic, anything is possible, and I think that believing in something even if it seems silly is just what we need right now. 

What's your favorite genre and what do you like most about it? Answer below in the comments! Have something book-related you'd like me to talk about? Let me know that too!